If Peppers gets franchised....

[Matt Foley]

...how realistic would it be to challenge the NFL in court on this? I mean seriously, he played out his current contract. The NFL is saying he is owned, for all intents and purposes, by one team and one city.

The NFL has great lawyers, but no one ever thought about challenging MLB on free agency until Curt Flood did it, and won, in the early 70s.

[Matt Foley]

it wont come to that. if we franchise him, he will be traded before the draft. peppers has played his last down in Carolina.

Yes, but Carolina could trade him to Buffalo or Seattle or Cincinnati. What if Peppers wants to say "I should be able to play where I want to"?

[MadHatter]

...how realistic would it be to challenge the NFL in court on this? I mean seriously, he played out his current contract. The NFL is saying he is owned, for all intents and purposes, by one team and one city.

The NFL has great lawyers, but no one ever thought about challenging MLB on free agency until Curt Flood did it, and won, in the early 70s.

It was agreed to by both sides in the CBA

[CarolinaSock]

Yes, but Carolina could trade him to Buffalo or Seattle or Cincinnati. What if Peppers wants to say "I should be able to play where I want to"?

Not likely considering a trade would most likely include an agreed upon long term contract between Peppers and the other team beforehand. Peppers won't agree to a contract with a crappy team based on what he's said. No team is going to take a 16 million cap hit for a one year rental.

[Fireball77]

Yes, but Carolina could trade him to Buffalo or Seattle or Cincinnati.

He still can refuse to agree to terms on a contract with them if he signs the franchise contract. If no trade can be worked out, he can hold out (no pay) or play for the FT #.

[crunkpanther]

Yes, but Carolina could trade him to Buffalo or Seattle or Cincinnati. What if Peppers wants to say "I should be able to play where I want to"?

You're right that he technically has no say on where he would be traded, but in practice, he does. Because no team will give up a first round pick plus whatever else we'd want without the guarantee of Peppers signing a long-term deal with them, he in essence can approve or disapprove of any deal.

Maybe that's not quite the same as him being able to sign with the one particular team of his choice, but it's pretty close. I don't think there's any team that wouldn't want to make a deal for him.

[crunkpanther]

I guess we addressed that.

[crunkpanther]

I do wonder if a player could challenge it, though, even though the players union agreed to it. They'd be challenging both the union and NFL, I guess.

[Matt Foley]

I do wonder if a player could challenge it, though, even though the players union agreed to it. They'd be challenging both the union and NFL, I guess.

If someone did challenge it, I can't imagine them losing. It's basically not fair to the player. I mean think about it. One guy gets singled out. If it was fair, they could do it to everybody. Morally speaking the rule has no leg to stand on.

[Highlandfire]

Yes, but Carolina could trade him to Buffalo or Seattle or Cincinnati. What if Peppers wants to say "I should be able to play where I want to"?

Oh he has say WHERE he wants to be traded to. All he has to do is decline to report and that team won't touch him.

[Woodie]

If someone did challenge it, I can't imagine them losing. It's basically not fair to the player. I mean think about it. One guy gets singled out. If it was fair, they could do it to everybody. Morally speaking the rule has no leg to stand on.

It wouldn't even make it to court.

The tag system was agreed upon in the current CBA by both the players union and the league. The players union represents the players and negotiates on their behalf. Once an agreement on the CBA has been reached, the players then vote on whether or not to accept the terms of the agreement negotiated by the union. So this was not something that was just thrust upon the players, they agreed to it...with each having a say.

[Brooklyn Bully]

Yeah, we can't ship him to a crappy team. And crappy teams have the better draft picks. Such is life.

[unicar15]

We are going to get an ass load for Peppers. I didn't want to start a new thread for this, I just wanted to say it. AN A-S-S L-O-A-D!

[unicar15]

Yeah, we can't ship him to a crappy team. And crappy teams have the better draft picks. Such is life.

Peppers has about as much leverage as we do in this situation. All we have to do is make sure we get Gross signed and then we call the shots with Pep. Pep has made it known that Carolina is the last place he wants to be. IMO he will go anywhere other than Detroit and KC. He has no more leverage than we do and this is why:

#1 - Hurney is going to structure Gross' deal such that we have enough room under the cap to tag and keep Peppers if it came to that. If that happens then Pep has 2 choices...Take the trade we offer him or play for a team that he wants no part of and has lobbied to get away from.

#2 - We can tag Peppers as many times as we want. He is the only player on our team right now that wants out so we can get deals worked out with everyone else that we need to. If we had to tag Pep next year then guess what we do it again. He will break before we will.

#3 - He's not gonna sit out. The guy is 29 years old and is in his prime. He is the best defender in the league and he knows it and he wants to capitalize on that by building a legacy for himself. Wasting a year by sitting out and getting nothing (if he sits the whole year) is not something that he is going to do.

For those 3 reasons we have more leverage than Peppers. The only thing that would keep any of those scenarios from happening is if we didn't have enough cap room and IMO with restructuring deals, the annual increase in the cap paired with his value...we will find a way to get what we want out of Julius Peppers. The teams that can't afford to do this are teams with ZERO disposable income like the Steelers...

IMO teams like Cle, Den, GB, Jac, SF, and Cincy are all possible trades IMO. This draft is not particularly strong and honestly if you are the Pack who would you rather have...Everrette Brown (completely unproven) or Julius Peppers (maybe the best athlete to ever play the game). Its a no brainer to me.